Donaire-Mijares on 7/14 in Texas

By Chris Williams: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 KO’s) said he wants interested in facing WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeux because he felt he had a boring fighting style and he wasn’t well known enough to fight. So instead of fighting Rigondeaux in a unification bout, Donaire will be fighting Cristian Mijares (44-6, 20 KO’s) on July 14th in a still to be determined venue in Texas.

The interesting part about this fight is that the 30-year-old Mijares isn’t ranked at all in the top 15 by the super bantamweight division. Mijares is ranked #4 IBF, #7 WBA in the bantamweight division but has no ranking at all in the top 15 at super bantamweight. It seems like Donaire is taking an easier opponent. If you comb through the divisions below you to take on fighters then I guess it’s a good thing if the World Boxing Organization is okay with letting Donaire do that.

Donaire took on a smaller fighter from a division below him last October when he was the WBC/WBO bantamweight champion and defended the belts against super flyweight Omar Narvaez. Donaire again took on a fighter from a division below him when he defeated flyweight Hernan Marquez in July 2010 when Donaire was the WBA super flyweight champion. Donaire did it again when he defeated minimumweight fighter Manuel Vargas in February 2010.

As you can see, Donaire has been matched against fighters from divisions below him for some reason. When he recently stepped up in weight to defeat former WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. to capture WBO title last last February, that was one of the few times in his career that Donaire was fighting someone around the same size as him. He took a lot of punishment in that fight in winning a 12 round split decision. But instead of taking on Rigondeaux now or defending the newly won WBO title against one of the top 15 WBO contenders, Donaire will be fighting a guy from a division below him in Mijares on July 14th. Is it just an accident that Donaire’s promoter Bob Arum is matching him against a fighter from a division below him or is this a way to ensure that Donaire doesn’t take much punishment like he absorbed in the Vazquez Jr. fight and to make sure he keeps winning?